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VOICE OVER MARKET - PART 2
Where To Find Voice Over Character
Work With Indie Games Developers
April 5, 2017

By Tamara Ryan
Voice Actress

See Part 1: Indie Games Business For Character Voices

Indie video games are becoming more and more widespread. With so many tools and guidelines available and the ability to work with anyone anywhere, it's easier than ever to create a team and make a game.

This means lots more opportunities for voice over!

However, many of these new indie game developers don't know where to look to find their voice talent. They post on forums, ask their friends, or rely on major voice over casting websites.

If you're interested in character work, and would love to get more game credits to your name, here are some places to check out, that many people don't know about or consider. I'll assume you're already familiar with the major online casting sites.

Note: Be fully aware that indie developers have varying budgets. Know your rate ahead of time, and always be up front that you are looking for paid work.

AUDITION SITES & FORUMS


The following are websites and forums where lots of unpaid work is posted usually.

BUT! At least once a week there are paying jobs to be found on all of them. Thought the rates vary, there are gems to be found. 
GAME DEVELOPER FORUMS

There are plenty of forums dedicated to game development. Indie developers share information, help solve issues, and give feedback to their fellow devs. They also welcome people wanting to share their skills and portfolios.

Here are just a few of the forums you can join. A Google search will bring up plenty more.
TIP! Just posting your portfolio and demos is fine, but you'll find much greater success if you become a part of the community. If you're the helpful neighborhood voice over talent who can help answer questions regarding VO, you'll become a trusted voice among the developers. 

REDDIT IS DIFFERENT

Are you familiar with Reddit? It's a different kind of forum.

Reddit has strict rules about self promotion, and you are expected to contribute much more to the site before you can safely start sharing your demos.

The following are subreddits dedicated to game development that allow you to share your website. However, each subreddit has its own set of rules. Be sure to read them carefully for a smooth experience. 
Several additional subreddits are dedicated to voice work, but the jobs listed can be few and far between:
FACEBOOK GROUPS

Like Reddit, Facebook groups have a tendency to want you to be a part of the community before you do any promotional posts.

Join a group, comment, post interesting articles, give feedback. Promotional material should be limited.

And as with Reddit, each group has its own set of rules. Read them carefully.
TAKE TWITTER, TOO

This is a general marketing tip, but I'll include it anyway. Twitter can be a great way to make connections and build relationships with game developers.

By searching for particular hashtags, you can target potential clients, follow them, and usually get a follow back. That opens the door for direct messaging where you can introduce your services more formally.

There are actually tools you can use to automate "follows" and direct messages.

Search for the following hashtags to find game developers:
  • #Gamedev
  • #Indiedev
  • #Gameaudio
CROWDFUNDING & STEAM GREENLIGHT

So many new games pop up on these sites every day. Some are fantastic quality work, others ... not so much. Either way, there is lots of opportunity to be found by finding a game you think looks promising, and emailing the developers directly. 

While I believe most people are familiar with Kickstarter by now, some might not be with Steam.

Steam is a distribution platform for games that is used worldwide by gamers and developers alike.

In order to get a game distributed through it, the game must go through a greenlight process. Most of the games you find in this section are not full completed games yet, and would be more likely open to an email about your voice over services. 

Click on these links, look through the games, and email the ones you're interested in. 
Hopefully you've found this series useful and will be expanding your game resume in no time!
------------------------
ABOUT TAMARA
Tamara Ryan is a full time professional voice actress with a passion for video games and animation. Even in 5th grade, she knew she wanted to "do voices for cartoons" and became heavily involved with theater in high school. In college she co-founded the first anime convention in Kansas: Naka-Kon. To pursue her dream of voice over, Tamara studied at Voicetrax in San Francisco for several years. Now living in Orange County and close to Los Angeles, she provides her talent to commercials, video games and more.


Email: contact@tamararyanvo.com
Web: www.tamararyanvo.com

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Comments (3)
Tamara
4/7/2017 at 7:51 PM
Happy to share!
Joleene
4/5/2017 at 6:10 PM
What a splendid list of resources! Thank you so much for compiling and sharing all of these with us! Here's to much continued success, ")
Susan
4/5/2017 at 2:36 PM
This was a fabulous article Tamara! Thank you!!
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